Hey. I publish a music review blog where I review a ton of Christian music and some of mainstream music. You can find it at www.furf.blogspot.com. You can search through my archives on the right side of the page. I like the Hawk Nelson album DIAMONDS and Audio Adrenaline's SOUND OF THE SAINTS. Stryper and Tourniquet are two of my fave bands on the harder side of things. I assume you are familiar with listening to www.christianrock.net. It's a good way to get exposed to new bands. Peace.

A few bands I enjoy:
DeGarmo & Key (especially Rock Solid Live, Heat it Up)
Whitecross (the albums with Rex Carroll, notably High Gear and the rerecorded 1987)
Chagall Guevara
Newsboys (Take me to Your Leader is the only rocker)
Tourniquet (Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance is a little lighter than the others, might be too metal)
Phil Keaggy (Blue or Crimson and Blue were great rock albums)
Ken Tamplin (Axe to Grind and Soul Survivor are my favorites)
Magdallan (Big Bang only)
P.F.R. (all their stuff was great)
Siloam
Allies (especially Long Way From Paradise)
Audio Adrenaline (Especially the Zombie album)
Ransom
Human
Geoff Moore and the Distance (Threads only, the rest are not so good)
These are just some of the artists I like from the good ole days.

Servant (When you listen to their stuff, you will hear musical and sonic hints of Golden Earring, The Clash, and other people on the radio at the same time.) You can play their songs today and lyrically they still fly.

Here are the rock and metal artists I used to play on radio. The quality for production and vinyl/tape was not comparable with the secular alternatives.

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David & The Giants
Kerry Livgren
Morgan Cryar
Joe English Band
AKA (Joe English Band)
Phil Keaggy
King James (Members from Stryper, White Cross, etc. Only three records were made. The last has rerecorded versions of the first and best album.)
Rez Band (I don't like this style of music, but they should be listened to for historical purposes.)
Idle Cure (a little light for me, but they had some "hits".)
Benny Hester (AOR)
Sweet Comfort Band (Depending upon the album, you might get rock, AOR, jazz, etc.)
Shout (Ken Tamplin's band. Former Journey drummer Deen Castronova was playing with them for a bit.) This music doesn't have much soul, and there is lots of show-boating on guitar, but hey...that's Ken.
Novella (Only had a few records. The first two were the best.)
X-Sinner (Christian Music's AC/DC.)
Deliverance (Christian Music's Metallica.)
Messiah Prophet (Christian Music's Preist.)
Bride (Christian Music's Guns N' Roses.)
Rob Rock and Chris Impelliteri (Christian Music's Satriani and Malmsteen.)
Ruscha (AOR. They had some charting singles.)
77s (This band was a reflection of secular college radio at the time.)
Lamb (This is very hard to find. They had a song covered Andrus Blackwood & Company (Formerly of the Imperials), and it was really cool back in the day. They had another song called "Jonah" that was very good for the time. These guys were doing acoustics, looping and voice boxes with drums and my youth directors thought it was EEEEEEEEEVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIL. Good stuff!
Check out anything with "solder", "holy" or "white" in the name, and you are going to get classic metal rip-offs with screaming, thin, vocals.

I've got a lot of catching up to do for music. I do like D&K, Allies, David and the Giants and Rez, all whom I own their music.

On another note, just came back from River Rock Maine. First time at a Christian music festival and thoroughly enjoyed it. A couple or 3 artists that were new to me and really stuck out were Unspoken and We are Messengers. I hadn't even heard of them and it was a "Whoa" moment with both.

Also heard Crowder (liked but not loved) and Mac Powell (disappointed. Pushing new secular country album) plus a host of others. Already looking forward to next years addition with Toby Mac (know who he is. Will need to catch up on his music).

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Well done my good and faithful servant, you may enter with me into paradise.

Nobody’s mentioned DC Talk, or Tait for that matter. Jesus Freak is one of the GOAT in Christian Rock.Steve Taylor’s Squint album and anything Newsboys, early Age of Faith (shout out to my buddy Jimi Ray), Sacred Heart if you can find it, Morgan Cryer, Steve Camp, Sheila Walsh, pre Lead Me On Amy Grant (a bit popish), and Connie Scott’s Hold On are some obscure jams.